Printing systems transform a print job into a printed output by applying colorant(s) to mark a printable medium, such as paper. In order to represent colors specified in the print job, printing systems utilize different colorants that are applied to the medium in different ratios. For instance, a Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key black (CMYK) printing system utilizes combinations of 4 different colorants to represent the input colors specified in the print job as an output color.
The colors specified in the print job are often defined in a different color space than the printing system. During the printing process, the printing system performs a color conversion to convert colors specified in the print job from the input color space of the print job to the output color space of the printing system.
An inkjet printing process often has to limit the amount of colorants placed (e.g. applied) on the medium in order to allow the medium to achieve a desired print quality and/or desired drying of the printed medium. Typically, limiting the amount of colorants is performed using fixed digital count limits in the output color space. For instance, a digital count limit in the CMYK output color space for a specific print engine and dryer combination may limit all colorant printing values to less than 260% C+Y+M+K. While this type of methodology may be effective to ensure that the printed output is acceptable, the print quality may suffer due to the inflexible methodology of a fixed colorant limit for printing. Further, the use of such fixed colorant limits may make it difficult to utilize colorants efficiently, which can increase the operating cost of a printing system.
Thus, there is a need to improve the print quality of a printing system, while ensuring that colorants used during the print process are used efficiently.